Automatic cistern connecter and cut-off



' Feb. 0, 1925. 1,525,637

AUTOMATIC CISTERN CONNECTER AND CUT-OFF Filed June 12',- 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet l William Ii Bot W. H. BOT

AUTOMATIC CISTERN CONNECTER AND CUT- OFF Feb. 10, 1925.

Filed June 12, 1 2 'v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 M'liiam 11.50]

Patented Feb. 10, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. BOT, OF MINNEOTA, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNO'R TO- GRADA T. BOT, OF

MINNEOTA,

MINNESOTA.

AUTOMATIC GISTERN CONNECTER AND CUT-OFF.

Application filed June 12,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WVILLIAM 11. B01, a citizen of United States, residing at Minneota, in the county of Lyon and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Cistern Connecters and Cut-Offs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the'invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to an automatic cistern connector, and cut-off, and to this end it consists of the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

The object of the device is to prevent the accumulation of dirt, dust and soot on a roof from being washed into a cistern, and said device is primarily set to waste a certain amount of water during the first part of a rain to thoroughly wash the roof and then automatically connect the down-spout from the gutters on a roof with a cisternfilling pipe.

In the accompanying drawlngs, wh ch illustrate the invention, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. l is a front elevation of one form of the invention with some parts broken away and sectioned;

Fig. 2 is a View principally in vertlcal section taken on the irregular line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a view principally in central vertical section showing another form of the invention with some parts shown in different positions by means of broken lines;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the inventlon shown in Fig. 4;; and

Fig. 6 is a view principally in transverse vertical section taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

Referring first to the invention illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the numeral 7 indicates a rectangular sheet metal casing adapted to be secured to the side of a building or other support and has an opening in its front wall, at the top thereof, to jafiord access to the interior of said casing. Ex-

compartment 10 and may discharge onto a the ground or into a sewer or cesspool. A down-spout 13 from the gutter on a roof extends into the casing 7 through the top thereof.

Pivoted within the casing 7 is a tiltable bucket 14: having a hopper bottom and ar ranged when tilted into one position to spill into the waste compartment 10 and when tilted into another position to spill into a filling compartment 9. It is highly important to note that the bucket 14 is pivoted off-center to the casing 7 and the weight thereof tends to tilt said bucket so as to spill into the compartment 10. A weight 15 on the bottom of the bucket 14, at the left-hand side thereof, offsets the tendency of said bucket to tilt to the right and tends to tilt the same into a position to spill into the compartment 9.

On the front of the bucket 14, at the pivotal connection thereof, is a double tooth escapement pawl 16, and resting thereon, at its intermediate portion is a long, oblique ratchet bar 17, the lower end of which is mounted in an aperture in the right-hand side of the casing 7 with freedom for endwise sliding movement. A plate 18 on the outer face of the pawl 16 holds the ratchet bar 17 against lateral movement from the bucket 14; and said pawl. An L-shaped stop finger 19 on the bucket 14 loosely rests on the upper edge of the ratchet bar 17 at the free or upper end portion thereof and holds said bucket in a filling position with freedom, when filled with water and thereby overbalanced, to tilt. and spill into the compartment 10, but holds said bucket against tilting movement under the action of the weight 15 into the compartment 9.

It is important to note that the downspout 13 is arranged to discharge into the bucket 14 at the left of the pivotal connection thereof so as to prevent the weight of the water discharging therefrom from prematurely tilting the bucket 14 and causing the same to spill into the compartment 10.

During the first part of a rain, when suitficient water is accumulated in the bucket ii, the same will be overbalanced and tilted so as to spill therefrom the dirty water from the root. During this tilting movement of the bucket le and the return movement thereof, under the action of the weight 15, the escapeinent pawl 16 will permit the ratchet bar 17 to slide, under the action of gravity, one step to the right in respect to the stop finger 19. After the bucket h has tilted to theright a predetermined number of times the ratchet bar 1? will have moved entirely from under the stop linger l9 and thereby release said. bucket so that it will tilt to the right, under the action of theweight 15, and form a connection between the down-spout 13 and the cistern-filling pipe ll so that the balance oi the water from the roof will be discharged into the cistern.

After a rain, the bucket ll may be again reset by simply holding the same in a filling position and then pushing the ratchet bar 17 upward under the stop finger 19 the desired distance to cause said bucket, during the next rain, to tilt a predetermined number of times while the roof is being throughly washed, and then automatically connect the down-spout with the cistern. When the cistern is full, the bucket 1st may be set and secured in any suitable manner to waste all of the water.

Referring now to the invention, as illus trated in Figs. 4t to 6, inclusive, the numeral 20 indicates a tilting bucket having a hopper bottom and a contractible discharge throat 21 at the right-hand end thereof arranged to spill into a waste pipe 22 or onto the ground when said bucket is tilted to the right. The left end of the bucket 20 is closed and has in its bottom short discharge spout 23 arranged to be positioned over the. funnel-shaped upper end of a cistern-filling pipe 24, and spills therein when the bucket 20 is tilted to the left and moved bodily a predetermined distance as will presently appear.

The bucket 20 is mounted by means of an escapement pawl 25 having a pair of depending teeth, and a co-operating ratchet bar 26 on which said pawl engages tor tiltably supporting the bucket 20 and imparting automatic steps of bodily movement thereof from thewaste pipe 22 toward the cistern pipe 24 to position its discharge spout over the cistern-filling pipe 24. The ratchet bar 26 extends horizontally and is formed with the forwardly and upwardly projecting lower ends of a bracket 27 secured to the outer face of a down-spout 28 which leads from a gutter on a root, not shown. The pawl 25 is carried by a bracket 29, secured to the front face of the bucket 20, which holds said pawl over the ratchet bar 26.

It is important to note that the left-hand tooth of the pawl 25 is located off-center to the left and that the right-hand tooth is relatively short and hence, causes the bucket 20 to tilt to the right and spill. into the pipe 22. To oil'set this tendency of the bucket 20 to tilt to the right, there is secured to the left-hand end thereof a weight 30 which under strain to cause the bucket 21 to tilt to the left, as indicated in Fig. l, and spill through its spout into the cistern pipe A stop 31 on an extension on an inverted lJ-shaped bracket -32, secured to the back of the down-spou 28, is arranged to be engaged by the right-hand end portion of the bucket 20 and normally hold said bucket in a filling position and against tilting movement to the left under the action of the weight 30. The back wall of the bucket 20 works in the tJ-shaped bracket 32 and is held thereby against lateral movement and keeps the pawl 25 in its proper relation to the ratchetbar 26.

During the first part of a rain, when sntlicient water is accumulated in the bucket 20, said bucket will be over-balanced and thereby spill the dirty water from the root. During this tilting movement of the bucket ll and the return movement thereof, the pawl 25 will have moved on the ratchet bar 26 and thereby imparted a step of bodily movement to the bucket 20 toward the cistern pipe 24. A predetermined number of tilting movements of the bucket 20 to the right will cause the bucket 20 to have moved on the ra chet bar 26 a sufficient distance to carry the long toot-h ot' the pawl 25 out oi engagement with the ratchet bar 26 and the bucket from under the stop 31 so that said bucket will tilt to the left, under the action of the weight 30, and thereby form a connection between the clown-spout 2S and cistern pipe 24.

Owing to the peculiar shape ot' the bottoms of the buckets 1d and 20, all of the water will be drained therefrom and the dirt a shed therefrom each time said buckets are tilted to the right to spill their contents.

Vi hat I claim is:

l. The combination with a spout, a waste pipe and a filling pipe, of a tiltable bucket under the spout normally held in a filling position and arranged when filled to tilt and empty into the waste pipe and then rc turn to normal position, and means for causing the tiltablo bucket alter emptying a prcdetern'iined number of times into the waste pipe to move into a position to form a connection between the spout and filling pipe.

2 The combination with a spout and a filling pipe, oi" a tiltablc bucket under the spout normally held in a filling position and arranged when filled to tilt into a spilling position and then return to filling position, a ratchet bar and a co-operating escapement pawl for the bucket, said bucket and ratchet bar being mounted so that one thereof moves in respect to the other, whereby the bucket after moving a predetermined number oi? times into a spilling position will move into a position to form a connection between the spout and the filling pipe.

3. The structure defined in claim 2 in further combination with a stop for limit ing the return movement of the bucket from its spilling position the predetermined number of times and then releasing said bucket to permit the same to move into a position to form the connection between the spout and filling pipe.

4:. The structure defined in claim 2 in l'nrther combination with a weight for holding the bucket in normal position and returning the same from the spilling position, and a stop for limiting the return movement of the bucket from its spilling position the predetermined number of times and then releasing said bucket to permit the same to move into a position to form the connection between the spout and filling pipe.

5. The combination with an spout and a filling pipe, of a pivoted tiltable bucket under the spout movable either into a spilling position or into a position to form a connection between the spout and pipe and under strain to move into the former position, a ratchet bar, a stop on the bucket engageable with the ratchet bar normally holding the bucket in a filling position with freedom to move, when filled, into a spilling position, said ratchet bar being under strain tomove endwise out of engagement with the stop and allow the bucket to move into a position to form the connection between the spout and pipe, and an escapement pawl co-operating with the ratchet bar and arranged to permit a step of endwise movement to the ratchet bar during each tilting movement of the bucket into a spilling position.

6. The combination with a two-compartment housing, a. filling pipe leading from one of said compartments and a waste pipe leading from the other thereof, a spout leading to the housing, of a tiltable bucket pivoted in the housing and arranged to move when filled into a position to spill into the waste pipe or into a position to form a connection between the spout and filling pipe, a weight on the bucket yieldingly holding the same in a filling position and returning the same from a spilling position, an inclined ratchet bar, a stop on the bucket engageable with the ratchet bar for holding the bucket in a filling position and against movement into a position to form a connection between the spout and filling pipe, said ratchet her being under strain to move endwise out of engagement with the stop, and an escapement pawl on the bucketco-operating with the ratchet bar to permit a step of endwise movement to the ratchet bar during the movement of the bucket into a spilling position.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

WILLIAM H. BOT. 

